The diagnosis and treatment of tissues that are suspected of being cancerous typically requires the patient to undergo several procedures. In many cases, a needle biopsy is carried out. This procedure involves inserting a hollow needle into the suspect tissue and withdrawing a sample via the hollow core of the needle. The biopsy sample is then sent to a pathology laboratory and analyzed to determine whether it contains cancer cells, or whether some other abnormal condition exists.
This type of biopsy is very useful in evaluating localized abnormalities and is especially beneficial, for example, in the diagnosis of cancers of the liver, prostate and kidney. Surgical biopsies generally involve the creation of larger wounds and, consequently, larger areas of scarring. As a result, needle biopsies are often preferred since patient discomfort, scarring and recovery time are reduced with respect to surgical biopsies.
During a needle biopsy, access to the suspect tissue is somewhat limited by the size of the needle and, as a result, it is often difficult or impossible to carry out additional procedures during the biopsy. Accordingly, tissue characterization procedures and therapeutic interventions are usually carried out separately from the biopsy, at a later time. After the biopsy, it may take some time to receive results of the tissue analysis from the pathology laboratory and this may further delay the beginning of treatment. If the sample is found to be insufficient or unsuitable for analysis, another biopsy must be performed, which requires re-introducing the biopsy needle at the selected location to remove another sample.
Depending on the diagnosis, therapy may be required to remove or treat the diseased tissue. In many cases, the tissue may be removed using any of a variety of minimally invasive methods. For example, a variety of treatments such as lumpectomy or ablation techniques may be available. Electrical currents may be applied to treat the tissues, or a chemical treatment substance may be employed for the same purpose. The treatment methods described herein are generally used to cause the destruction of targeted tissue through substances harmful to the targeted tissue. These substances include, for example, salts, long & short term acting pellets, radiation sources (e.g., high dose, through a placeholder, low dose in the form of brachytherapy seeds) etc. References to ablation or to other specific methods for the treatment of diseased tissue are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the application of the system and method according to the invention.
In general, these treatment procedures are carried out after the diagnostic steps have been performed, since it often takes time to evaluate tissue samples. To reach the tissue, the tissue treatment devices are positioned in the same area targeted by the biopsy. Positioning these devices takes time with the surgeon repeating several steps that were already taken while performing the biopsy.
In many cases, treatment may require repeated therapeutic sessions in which a needle or other device must be re-inserted into the same portion of tissue. This causes discomfort to the patient and also increases the time and cost of the operation. Scarring due to repeated insertion of a needle may also make it progressively more difficult to correctly place the therapeutic device within the diseased tissue, so that efficacy of the treatment may be reduced. Likewise, in cases where it is necessary to take additional biopsy samples from-the affected site, the same steps described above are repeated, with the ensuing patient discomfort and extended time for the procedure.